How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits in Teens?

Your child’s health depends on what he/she eats in the beginning, his/her physical development depends on what you provide for him/her. The child needs to be encouraged to eat healthy & nutritious food for his/her physical development, so that he/she should face the world in a confident manner, later in life. For the first six months, the infant needs to survive only on breast milk. Along with it the process of providing Suvarna bhasma (purified ash of gold) should also be given that enhances the immune system immensely. It can be provided until the child turns 16 years. It has numerous health benefits in it that will come in handy for the rest of the life.

During the teenage your child needs to be pampered to eat healthy food as during this age every child is persuaded by his/her friends, to eat some unhealthy food like the junk food, processed food, and soft drinks. All teens just run after the taste and during these years nobody is worried about their health unless they are a sportsman/woman.

Spend some time with them, and tell him/her the benefits of having healthy food. Put some healthy food in his/her tiffin box that he/she carries to school and better make sure that he/she eats it and not give it to his/her friends or colleagues. If your kid doesn’t obey your orders, it can make him lethargic or obese and he/she will struggle to stay fit & fine.  

Teens have almost no knowledge about the necessary requirements of the body, what nutrients to have to make a healthy body. Everybody in the present times is in a hurry to have a muscular body. They start going to the gyms, better make them aware that some nutrients are necessary to enhance their muscle value.

Their capacity to plan, socially adept or take actions without gauging the emotional aspect, these impulses are still developing in this adolescence age. When the brain develops with the passage of time, it develops the decision making circuits that were in a complex age, begin to connect in a better way. This is the age when the parents, mentors, teachers and accompanying adults need to guide them properly.

Don’t allow your kids having food outside your kitchen too often. During teenage everybody loves going for an outing and have fun by eating outside. Better make food at home and encourage them to eat that only. As during this age, no kid loves to enjoy the company of their parents. Make the meals more creative and different, which should be loved by your kids as you know their tastes very well. You can add the items that have the maximum nutrients and taste that suits your kids tongue.

The main aim of eating a nutritious diet is to give sufficient energy to your body to function normally.

Every cell needs to be in a healthy condition, for that we need to digest the food eaten properly, here Agni (digestive fire) comes in the act. If it burns in a normal condition, our cells are taken good care of, thus producing Ama (the waste material) is passed off without any hiccups. Our diet not only looks after our body, but the various spices and other ingredients we add to the cuisine keeps our mental position positive and prevents our teens from falling sick

Breakfast for Teens

You have to teach your kid to wash his/her face the moment he/she leaves the bed and brush his/her teeth with a toothpaste having fluoride. Then to stimulate his/her Agni, so that your kid feels hungry to have home cooked meal, the first thing on the menu should be warm porridge, which has some turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of cardamom. The kid can add some spice to the glass of milk that is also necessary with porridge. You can also add some ground ginger & ghee to the glass of milk. We suggest to have cow’s milk and don’t go for a vegan diet as it has been found that kids who had lots of vegan diets found the structure of their bones a bit feeble, due to the lack of calcium. Their physical development was found to lack proper maintenance.

Lunch for Teens

The first thing your kids should get is lassi, (a yogurt drink), with a well-balanced lunch. Lassi is made from pro-biotic yogurt, the lassi keeps the gut flora in an upbeat mood. Lassi is available in different flavors, can be sweet, salty or without any taste like water, choose the one your kids love drinking. Some of its recipes are

• Almond vanilla lassi
• Lassi with vanilla & coconut
• Or you can opt to make lassi at your own home from the yogurt you use at home.

Dinner for Teens

To let the bowels move smoothly and make your kids have nice and peaceful sound sleep you need to provide them with the dinner that is not a heavy one. It should be light and easy to digest. Forget about any animal proteins that are a bit difficult to digest, better give them a dinner, which is light and heavy in nutritious value.

Bed Time

You need to make your kid get a sound and peaceful sleep during the night. Kids who don’t get enough sleep can be affected mentally. Falling sleep fast and deeply is a blissful thing, which relaxes the mind that wakes up fresh, vitally alive, upbeat the next morning and faces the world in a better way.

If your kid doesn’t sleep for more than 8 hours a day or wakes up in the middle of the night and doesn’t fall asleep after that or is facing insomnia.